


the things that lovers do

by efreet (orphan_account)



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: Asexual Character, Domestic, F/F, F/M, M/M, Polyamory, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-07 12:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1899096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/efreet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shintaro ponders the confusing four-way tangle that's become his daily life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the things that lovers do

**Author's Note:**

> this was previously the second chapter of making up (for lost time). i decided to move it to it's own work instead.

Ayano places their meals in front of them, saving Haruka’s for last. His serving twice as large as any of the others, only a little smaller than the pot itself. Spaghetti is always a classic for them—it’s not expensive, and it’s easy to make. When Haruka or Shintaro are on duty, the meals are usually a little more elaborate. Ayano is too scatterbrained for cooking things that require complicated timing, and Takane doesn’t have the patience for it. The downside is that Haruka usually eats at least half the meal while cooking, so any fancy cooking has to come from Shintaro. 

 

They pause to thank Ayano for the food before diving in, Haruka’s manners atrocious as always. Ayano laughs into her own bowl when a stray noodle smacks him on the nose. Shintaro just grins, eating slowly and carefully, partly because if a noodle hit _him_ on the nose he’d never hear the end of it. Takane eats as though starving, but even she’s less messy than Haruka.

 

Ayano meets Shintaro’s eyes across the table and grins at him. It’s such a perfect moment that for a second Shintaro just stares back at her, lost, until Takane snaps her fingers in front of his eyes.

 

“Wake up, loverboy, or Haruka’s gonna eat all your food,” she says, but she’s smiling too. 

 

“I am not!” Haruka protests, having finished his bowl sometime within the last thirty seconds. “I had enough, thank you,”

 

Ayano grins mischievously. “I guess you’re too full for dessert, then? I bought some ice cream and wafers earlier…” 

 

“There’s always room for dessert,” Haruka assures her, deadly serious. “Always,”

 

“Yeah, you bottomless pit,” Takane teases. “Remember that time you won that eating contest? 50 bucks for 50 bowls of chicken and rice? God,” 

 

“You got your video game and I got food,” Haruka says happily. “It worked out for everyone,”

 

Shintaro just laughs, twirling his fork for another bite. 

 

Living together has been good for all of them, in different ways. Ayano’s been more open, without the responsibilities of being a big sister, and without any secrets to keep. She’s just as silly as the rest of them, when it comes down to it. She’s a lot like Shintaro remembers from back in high school, but without all the mystery.

 

Takane had the most trouble out of all of them at first, learning to balance her old, high school self with the cheerful persona she’d adopted over the past year. She’s done admirably, though. Like Ene, she’s bitingly sarcastic, and still has Takane’s quick temper, but she’s happier, too. More confident.

 

Haruka still struggles with Konoha and Kuroha both, who are so separate from him that it’s not possible for him to accept them as himself, like Takane did with Ene. Some days he wakes up as Konoha, the blankness all wrong on his usually cheerful face. The Kuroha days are the worst, both for Haruka and the rest of them, but they deal accordingly. Haruka’s learning to trust himself around them, 

 

The three of them have changed, thinks Shintaro. In a good way. 

 

“Hey,” Takane says, right in his ear, and he jumps so badly the table shakes. She’s standing next to him, bent down to his level. She laughs, too loudly for such a close distance. “You’re in the clouds today, huh?” 

 

He blinks and realizes that Haruka’s already clearing away the dishes, and Ayano has gone to the kitchen, probably to get out dessert.

 

“I guess,” he admits. “Just thinking,”

 

Takane loops her arms around his shoulders, chin resting on his head. “About what?” she asks.

 

He shrugs. “Stuff. Us living together. You know,”

 

“Having Ayano’s babies,” Takane nods understandingly. He can feel it from how her chin knocks against his skull.  

 

Shintaro splutters. “That doesn’t even make sense! I can’t have babies!” 

 

“Having Haruka’s babies?” Takane offers, ignoring the last bit. “You’re not having mine, though,”

 

“Why not?” Shintaro asks, despite himself. 

 

Takane flicks him on the side of the head. “You’d be horrible pregnant. I’m not going to be responsible for that kind of shit,”

 

“Why are we having this conversation?” Shintaro asks the world at large.

 

“If you can time loop like a thousand times, who’s to say you can’t give birth?” Takane asks, completely deadpan. 

 

“Shut up,” Shintaro laughs, knocking his head back so she’s forced to stop leaning on him. 

 

Haruka comes flying back to the table, somehow grabbing both of them in one hug. He’s a glutton for affection, and also horribly jealous when it comes to other people cuddling without him. 

 

“Who’s giving birth?” he asks excitedly, grasping both of them tight.

 

“Nobody,” Shintaro says, before Takane can answer. Thankfully, she just smiles, leaning into the embrace. There’s no blush on her cheeks. She looks content, not embarrassed. 

 

Shintaro thanks his lucky stars again that Takane has gotten over her crush on Haruka. After all that happened between them, Takane had come out on the other side less inclined to expressing her feelings through violence and stammering. Shintaro is glad, not only because he had been a tiny bit jealous, back then, but also because Takane’s more comfortable around Haruka. It’s easy, between the two of them. 

 

Actually, everything is easy, most of the time. But he thinks they deserve it, after all they went through.

 

Ayano comes back into the kitchen, holding bowls and spoons in one hand and a carton of ice cream in the other. The wafers are tucked under one arm, and she dumps all of it on the table unceremoniously. Haruka dives in for the ice cream, and Takane goes for the wafers. With an air of tired practice, Shintaro arranges the bowls and spoons. 

 

Haruka actually serves them all, not just himself. Takane’s the one who stuffs wafers into her mouth until Ayano snatches the box back.

 

“Hey!” Takane complains, reaching out, but Ayano smacks at her fingers.

 

“They’re for everyone, not just you,” Ayano scolds. 

 

Haruka snickers, and Takane huffs. Shintaro takes advantage of everyone’s momentary distraction to grab a few wafers for himself out of the unattended box in Ayano’s hand. Haruka watches him with such a pitiful look of longing that Shintaro hands him one across the table.  

 

Once dessert is sorted out and finished, Shintaro realizes it’s his turn on cleanup duty. Takane smirks at him, even though they each have an equal number of chores per week, courtesy of Ayano’s organization skills. 

 

He stacks the bowls neatly and dumps the spoons into the top one, then takes all of it to the sink. He’s midway through rinsing and placing them in the dishwasher when Haruka sneaks up behind him.

 

“Let’s have sex!” Haruka practically yells in his ear. Shintaro drops the bowl he’s holding with a clatter.

 

He swears he can hear Takane laughing at him from somewhere in the house. Okay, maybe he can’t hear her but he _knows_ she is. 

 

The sex thing is still new for all of them. It’s especially hard when it includes four people. Shintaro knows that Takane and Haruka probably fool around the most often out of all of them. Mostly because Haruka’s insatiable, and Takane’s pretty easygoing when it comes to sex. Shintaro himself is more awkward about it, but he and Haruka are probably the second most active out of their four-way tango. Sometimes he and Takane end up in bed together, though they can hardly be serious enough to get any kind of sexual interaction going (he remembers one particular occasion where Takane had whispered “master~” in his ear, and he’d laughed so hard Ayano had come in asking if they needed medical attention). Also, Haruka is impossible when being left out, so there’s rarely a time when it’s only the two of them and not three, which is probably for the better. 

 

Ayano is not a very sexual person, so she generally stays out of their way when it comes to these kinds of things. Maybe once or twice a month she might be interested, in which case they all take advantage of the opportunity and try to squeeze four adult bodies into one bed. Sometimes, Shintaro suspects she goes to Takane in between these times, but he’s not going to pry if she doesn’t want to share. Ayano says she doesn’t mind being left out, though sometimes she likes to watch, which makes Takane regress back to high school era embarrassment (and Shintaro too, if he’s honest).

 

So, sex is difficult. Especially when they’re always trying to fit around each other like puzzle pieces, figuring out what will work and what won’t with who. Having three partners is definitely more complicated than just the one, when it comes to these things.

 

“Absolutely not,” Shintaro says finally, returning to scrubbing out sauce with more determination than before. “We have work tomorrow,”

 

“Please?” Haruka asks, eyes widening and lower lip trembling. It’s a look he’s perfected over the years, that has sadly not become less effective as the years wear on. “Takane said it’s okay!”

 

“Because Takane can’t say no to _you_ ,” Shintaro corrects, placing the bowl in the dishwasher below the counter. 

 

“But you’re not going anywhere tomorrow, it’s not an Out day!” Haruka argues. “Please? We haven’t done anything in _ages_ ,” the last is an outright moan of despair, and Shintaro rolls his eyes. The entire household has a system about Shintaro’s job. Even though he works from home, he’s required to work outside at least three times a week, hurried along by whoever’s free that day. 

 

“You and Takane had sex last week,” he says flatly, turning around to point a finger in Haruka’s direction. A few years ago he would never have gotten the words out, but dealing with Haruka Kokonose has put a sad end to his sense of shame. “We all heard you. I probably would have finally beat Ayano at Mario Cart if you hadn’t been so loud,”

 

“It was fun!” Haruka says, completely unapologetic. “You should have joined in!”

 

Shintaro sighed. “No. No, that’s okay. I’m good. You and Takane have fun,” he urges, turning back to the dishes. “I’m gonna watch some TV and go to bed. Like a normal person,” 

 

Haruka pouts. “Normal people have sex! That’s how babies are made,” he says, all serious and informative. Shintaro is torn between being offended and amused. 

 

“Don’t have a baby with Takane,” Shintaro warns.

 

“Oho! Jealous?” Haruka leans in, attempting wiggling his eyebrows but mostly ending up looking silly. Shintaro laughs at him.

 

“Please. I just don’t want to see Takane with child anytime soon,”

 

“Why, you think she’d be cranky? Are you stereotyping again, Shintaro?” Ayano calls, coming to peek into the kitchen. 

 

“It’s not a stereotype!” Shintaro protests. “Pregnancy causes women to become more irritable and unpredictable! It’s a hormone thing,” he waves his arms in an attempt to underline his point, splashing Haruka in the process. 

 

“Well, I’m pretty sure you’d be worse if it ever came to _you_ having to carry a child,” Ayano says, coming over to lean her head on his shoulder. “I can almost hear the whining now…”

 

“Not you too!” Shintaro groans. “I don’t want to have this conversation. I want to watch TV and go to bed. Why is this happening,”

 

Haruka is firmly attached on his other side, as clingy as ever. “Shintaro! Have sex with me! With us!” he yells, and Shintaro covers his mouth with one soapy hand. 

 

“Shintaro,” Ayano says reproachfully. “You’re not being very considerate,”

 

“Considerate? Because I don’t want to wake up at 11 in the morning realizing I stayed up until four fooling around with _this_?” he gestures to Haruka, who gives him his best glare.

 

“It’s only eight o’clock,” Ayano says soothingly. “You have plenty of time. There’s no need to hold back on my account,”

 

Shintaro sighs, removes his hand from Haruka’s mouth, and rubs his forehead. He can feel an oncoming headache.

 

“Why are you even fighting this,” Takane asks, strolling into the room. She gives Shintaro a Look before draping herself on Ayano, who pats her head indulgently. “Even Ayano said she’d be up for it,”

 

Shintaro flushes. “It’s just. We haven’t. Uh, planned. Er,” he stammers. 

 

Ayano takes pity on him. He’d always known there was a reason why he’d fallen for her first (all right, maybe it had something to do with the school roof incident, but still). “Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” she assures him. “Don’t be so nervous,”

 

Takane grins, all mischief. “Nah, it’ll probably be awkward and messy and terrible,” she says, and Shintaro groans. “But it’s not like it won’t be fun!”

 

“Exactly,” Haruka agrees, looking at Shintaro with wide, shining eyes. “Please? We never get to do things all four of us,”

 

He looks at all of the expectant faces, Ayano’s sweet, hopeful smile, Takane’s knowing smirk, and Haruka’s pleading look. 

 

“Fine,” he says, at last. 

 

And then he’s smothered by his three very excited partners, all trying to hug him at once. 

 


End file.
